The disclosed embodiments generally pertain to a cranking circuit for an engine. More particularly, but not by way of limitation, present embodiments relate to a method of decoupling a battery from the high level currents of an engine, for example a diesel engine.
In certain combustion engines, batteries utilized to start the engine may experience severe charge/recharge cycles and very high peak current discharges of up to thirty times daily. This occurs in part because there is a desire to conserve fuel in the engines, for example by turning off locomotive diesel engines when the locomotive is not moving a load. As a result, these high numbers of restarts may occur every day.
Each cycle places additional stress on the battery. For example, during these start cycles, batteries may exceed 1300 amps peak and may see severe loads. Over time, these repeated cycles and high stress loads result in significant limitation of the battery life.
During the life of the battery, problems associated with the above cycles and loadings include, but are not limited to, repeated recharging of batteries, decreased capacity, unreliable engine starts or failures to start and shortened battery life. In the field of locomotive transport, these problems cause transit delays which are extremely expensive for railroad companies, for example. Finally, due to the severe load and high number of recharging cycles, constant battery preventive maintenance is a continual problem.
It would be desirable to overcome these and other known issues associated with cranking circuits of engines and additionally reduce stress on batteries, improved battery life and reduce unstable or dead batteries and failure to start incidents.
It would further be desirable to decouple the battery from these circuits, however a source needs to be provided which facilitates starting of the engine, for example a diesel engine.
In addition to these goals, it is also desirable to provide a more reliable first time start which may require increasing voltage to the load or starter.
The information included in this Background section of the specification, including any references cited herein and any description or discussion thereof, is included for technical reference purposes only and is not to be regarded subject matter by which the scope of the invention is to be bound.